Commission adopts a report on the efficiency of the list of banned
airlines

Three years after the adoption of the EU rules
governing the establishment and update of the list of airlines banned from
European airspace, the European Commission adopted today a report on their
application. The report will be presented to the European Parliament and to the
Council. It gathers the experience of twelve updates of the list of airlines
banned in the European Union and draws some lessons for the future. These
lessons will guide policy decisions in the area of air safety at European and
international level in 2010. Three years of application of the rules governing
the list of banned airlines have shown the effectiveness of this tool to keep
safe Europeans travelling by air. Over the three years since it came into
existence, the list of banned airlines has served as a clear demonstration of
the value added by the Community system in the field of air safety. Rather than
being employed as a punitive instrument, the list of airlines banned within the
EU has proven to be an efficient dissuasive measure, which seeks to identify as
early as possible serious air safety deficiencies with potentially disastrous
consequences. Without providing a full guarantee, it has also functioned as a
strong incentive to airlines and civil aviation authorities to continuously
improve safety. Where a ban was agreed it was always a temporary measure which
would last only until the airlines and their regulatory authorities could show
that they had addressed the identified shortcomings and were meeting the safety
standards. The report can already be consulted on the Commission’s website
- http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air/safety/safety_en.htm

European assistance intensifies following heavy flooding in
Albania

As Albania continued to fight major flooding in the
north of the country, assistance from several EU countries in the form of mobile
generators, rescue boats and helicopters reached the country over the weekend.
The assistance is being coordinated via the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
An EU assessment team arrived in Tirana on 8 January to coordinate EU
assistance. The team, which includes a liaison officer from the European
Commission and an associated UN expert, is carrying out assessments in the
flooded areas and meeting with the Albanian emergency coordination team, and
will stay until Saturday. A significant amount of in-kind assistance reached the
country over the weekend. Mobile generators from Slovenia and a crew of 30
fire-fighters with their equipment (vehicles, rescue boats and water pumps) from
Greece arrived on Saturday. More assistance is expected today, with two
transport helicopters and medicines from Italy, additional mobile generators and
high capacity water pumps from Austria and water pumps from France on their way.
In addition, Austria and France have agreed to transport their relief items
jointly and have requested co-financing of transport from the European Civil
Protection Mechanism. After days of heavy rains and melting snow in the north of
Albania, more than 2,000 buildings have been flooded and over 4,000 people have
been evacuated from affected areas. For more information:Civil
Protection: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/civil/index.htm